Fighters and their managers typically don’t like to talk much about future opponents when a tough one is on front of them. To that end, super bantamweight champion Abner Mares and manager Frank Espinoza realize Anselmo Moreno won’t be an easy foe to conquer when Mares and Moreno square off tonight in the main event at Staples Center (on Showtime).

But the dynamic duo admittedly has grown tired of the feud between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank Inc., that, unless there is a dramatic change, is going to prevent Mares from getting the best possible fights.

If you read Mares’ comments in this space five weeks ago, you know how important that is to him.

Prior to a public workout Monday at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, Mares and Espinoza readily – if painfully – discussed the subject.

Espinoza has become one of boxing’s most respected managers. Understand that although he is no pushover, he needs a good reason to bust chops. For him to say the things he said means he’s fed up with boxing’s two most powerful promotional companies refusing to do business with each other unless forced to because of a purse bid, a mandatory defense or something of that nature.

“Oh, absolutely,” said Espinoza, of West Covina. “To answer your question, yeah, it is very frustrating.”

The fight Espinoza and Mares both want next – providing they get a win tonight – unquestionably is with fellow super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, who ranks highly on respected top 10 pound-for-pound lists. That’s where Mares wants to be and is good enough to be, but it will be difficult for him to get there unless he can duke it out with Donaire.

It’s a fight that has been earned, Espinoza said, because of what Mares has done in his past five fights that have produced a 4-0-1 record against world champions or former world champions in Yonnhy Perez (a draw), Vic Darchinyan, Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko twice and Eric Morel.

“We have done everything asked of us,” Espinoza said.

Now it’s time for the best of the best. Espinoza won’t take no for an answer.

“The only fight we want is Donaire,” Espinoza said. “No if’s, no but’s, no nothing. We don’t want to fight nobody else. That’s the fight that we’re looking to fight next.

“If Abner gets over on Moreno, that’s the only fight that I want.”

It’s also the only fight desired by Hawaiian Gardens’ Mares.

“Yeah, I think it’s only right,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would think any different, seeing my resume and seeing the fights that I’ve had back-to-back, and I can’t wait.”

Mares, who is promoted by Golden Boy, said he will take his case directly to the powers that be at Oscar De La Hoya’s company.

“I mean, like any worker, any job, when they’re not getting what they want normally what they do is go on strike,” Mares, 26, said. “But me, no, I don’t think I have to do that.

“I’ve just gotta go in the office and talk to my team, Golden Boy Promotions, and be a gentleman about it and talk about it and hopefully Golden Boy and the whole crew could come to an agreement and make that fight happen.”

Mares’ contract with Golden Boy is up in 2014. If the long-running discord between Golden Boy and Top Rank is still preventing Mares from getting what he wants, whether it’s a fight with Donaire or any other top fighter belonging to Top Rank, Espinoza will have a chat with Mares before re-signing with Golden Boy.

“Well, I mean, I think we have to have a conversation and certainly I would sit down and talk to Abner,” Espinoza said. “But until then we have to respect our contract and then when the time comes, sit down and have that conversation.”

If Mares, a class act, has become perturbed enough by that time, he may want to bolt. We asked him if he would, but he wouldn’t quite go there.

“Really, I can’t comment on that, to tell you the truth,” Mares said, glumly.

Donaire, who will defend his belt Dec. 15 against Jorge Arce in Houston (on HBO), is promoted by Top Rank, whose chairman is Bob Arum. Arum recently told us, “Abner Mares has to make a decision. A Donaire-Mares fight can happen after Mares’ contract runs out next year with Golden Boy.”

Arum said something about the companies not being able to work together on that fight because Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer is “owned by Showtime.”

The feeling here is that’s just a smoke screen. Bottom line is Arum hates Golden Boy and vice versa and they’ll come up with anything in defense of themselves.

Schaefer on Tuesday was told much of what Espinoza and Mares said. Schaefer was of no help.

“I think when Nonito Donaire’s contract is up with Top Rank, which is going to be in a year or so, then I think he’s going to have to think what he wants to do,” Schaefer said.

We reminded Schaefer that basically is what Arum said about Mares, which at the time irked Schaefer.

“I guess so,” Schaefer admitted. “What goes around, comes around.”

Mares (24-0-1, 13 KOs) weighed in at 121.8 pounds Friday, just under the 122-pound limit. The left-handed Moreno (33-1-1, 12 KOs), a former bantamweight champion out of Panama, tipped the scales at 120.8 pounds.

Klitschko fondly recalls Steward

Emanuel Steward trained Wladimir Klitschko for about nine years, and it’s safe to say Steward made a lasting impression on Klitschko, who will defend his three heavyweight belts against Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KOs) of Poland tonight at O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Germany (on Epix).

Klitschko spoke about his time with Steward, who died Oct. 25, during a conference call this week.

“The relationship between Emanuel and me was very special. Not just a regular relationship between a coach and a boxer,” Klitschko said. “Because he respected my experience inside and out of the ring. I respected his experience outside of the ring as a coach. Our first work was not successful – it was the first time I fought Lamon Brewster in 2004 – a fight that I lost. After which we both broke down in tears (laughs) because we couldn’t believe what happened to us.

“Emanuel Steward has been known for his strength to pick up the fighter when he is not on the top, but when he is on the bottom. That was the situation when Emanuel started to work with Lennox Lewis. He was not in Lennox’s corner when he fought Oliver McCall (the first time). He then started to work with Lennox.

“It was something that I believed in the coach and he believed in the boxer, in this case with me and in that case with Lennox and that made Emanuel a very special man.”

Klitschko referred to Steward as a “genius” and talked about how Steward would devise strategy for an upcoming fight.

“We basically write a script in the preparation and the script was played out in the fight exactly the way we wrote it,” Klitschko said. “We were analyzing everything – the way the opponent talks, the way the opponent walks, what he has done before, what was the most common thing he repeated on the strong side of the opponent and on the weak side of the opponent.”

With all that, Klitschko spoke of uplifting conversations.

“We talked a lot,” he said. “We actually talked more than we did pads work. We talked about boxing and we talked about life because life is like boxing. There are certain things that are comparable and one of them is life and the sport of boxing.”

Klitschko, 36, is 58-3 with 50 knockouts. He is being trained by Johnathon Banks, a 30-year-old active heavyweight who is fighting Seth Mitchell in a fairly big fight next Saturday.

Etc.

Vanes Martirosyan of Glendale will square off with Erislandy Lara in a junior middleweight title elimination bout at Wynn Resort in Las Vegas (on HBO). Martirosyan, 26, is 32-0 with 20 knockouts. Lara, 29, is 17-1-1 with 11 knockouts. … Folks either at Staples Center tonight or watching on Showtime figure to get a real treat when Leo Santa Cruz (21-0-1, 12 KOs) of Lincoln Heights defends his bantamweight belt against Victor Zaleta (20-2-1, 10 KOs) of Mexico on the undercard of the Abner Mares-Anselmo Moreno super bantamweight title fight. Santa Cruz, just 24, is one of the most exciting young champions today. … Next Saturday’s lightweight title fight between champion Antonio DeMarco (28-2-1, 21 KOs) of Tijuana and Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KOs) of Cincinnati at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (on HBO) could be a thriller. Broner, the flashy former junior lightweight champion who lost his belt on the scales before his most recent fight, is moving up in weight. … Brian Viloria (31-3, 18 KOs) of Waipahu, Hawaii and Hernan Marquez (34-2, 25 KOs) of Mexico will tangle next Saturday in a flyweight title unification bout at the Sports Arena (on something called Wealth TV).

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